Conference policies

1. Policy on harassment and discriminationThe Evolution Meetings are intended to foster the exchange of scientific ideas, providing participants with an opportunity to present research findings, establish/renew collaborations, recruit people to their laboratories, and learn, teach, and network with an international community of evolutionary biologists. The Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), the American Society of Naturalists (ASN), and the Society for the Study of Systematic Biology (SSB) are committed to creating an environment where everyone can participate without harassment, discrimination, or violence of any kind. All meeting participants must be treated with respect and consideration. Registration for the meeting is considered an agreement to abide by this code of conduct.

Harassment of any participant (attendee, speaker, volunteer, exhibitor, staff member, service provider, organizer, or meeting guest) will not be tolerated. Unacceptable behavior includes (but is not limited to) unwanted verbal attention, unwanted touching, intimidation, stalking, shaming, or bullying. Discrimination on the basis of gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, physical appearance, race, religion, national origin, or ethnicity will not be tolerated. Harassment presented in a joking manner is still harassment and constitutes unacceptable behavior. Retaliation for reporting harassment is also unacceptable, as is reporting an incident in bad faith.

People wishing to report a violation of this code of conduct should contact our Safety officer, Sherry Marts. Incidents of harassment and discrimination are taken extremely seriously. Confidentiality will be maintained unless disclosure is legally required.

The meeting organizers, members of the JMC, and Society executive officers reserve the right to enforce this code of conduct in any manner deemed appropriate. Anyone violating the code of conduct may be: (a) asked to stop, (b) expelled from the meeting (without refund), and/or (c) prohibited from attending future meetings. Establishing this code of conduct is intended to prevent incidents of harassment, discrimination, and violence, and to maintain the high quality of scientific discourse that our members have come to expect from the Evolution meetings.

2. Policy on liabilityThe Societies shall not be responsible for any defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct of all Evolution Meeting participants, and shall not be held liable for personal injury, property damage, theft or damage of any kind suffered by the participants at or in connection with the Evolution meeting. By registering for and attending the annual Evolution Meeting, each participant acknowledges that they have read this Disclaimer, and expressly releases the Societies and its board members, directors, officers, employees, or agents from any and all liability in connection with such Meeting as provided herein.

3. Weapons policyFor the safety of all attendees, the Evolution Meetings are ‘weapons free’ and all conference participants, including staff, volunteers, and attendees, are banned from possessing any object or substance intended to cause injury to others, including but not limited to firearms.

4. Broadcasting policyThe Evolution Meetings support the communication and discussion of science. Information presented at the Meeting (in oral or poster format) may be reported and discussed by attendees and science writers via blogs, Twitter, or other formats. However, we require that this be done respectfully and without direct reproduction of visual materials (e.g., no posting photos of slides or posters) unless permission is obtained from the presenter or they have already made this information freely available in an open-source forum. If a presenter does not want information from his/her presentation to be broadcast, they should make this clear in their talk/poster and we ask that attendees respect this.

If you have questions or concerns about this policy, or would like to report an abuse of it, please contact any member of the Joint Meeting Committee.

5. Policy on multiple presentationsThe Evolution Meetings have grown dramatically of late, increasing the demand for both oral and poster presentations. To reduce competition and give more people an opportunity to present, attendees are limited to presenting one talk, no matter what type (i.e. contributed or invited of any length) and/or one poster*. Please note that this only applies to the presenting author; you can be a co-author on multiple presentations given by others.*There is an exception for those giving a 5 min. talk in a Spotlight Session at Evolution 2017. Details here.